How did we get here (part 2)

Last post I talk about the money needs of Exiern, now I am going to talk about why there is a member’s area. You see personally I don’t like member’s areas. They smack of elitism and an implied connection between money and value. A reader that gives money is no more valuable than a reader doesn’t give, in my opinion. I still think it is pretty amazing that people bother to stop by.

So why do I have a members area if I have a certain amount of antipathy towards them. For that we need to talk about a little history:

As you know Exiern was originally draw by myself. After going on a break I got Studio Boom to replace me as the art for the comic and vastly improved the art. After the hiatus I put it to the readers we could go back to my art or if I received enough donations we could keep on Studio Boom indefinitely.

Well the threat worked sort of. The first month Exeirn did not receive enough to fully pay Studio Boom but it was close enough. Each month the donations got a little better. I tried to reward the donators with a wallpaper or a commissioned comic as a small thank you for their support.

Then I released the R-rated “Cheating Death” comic. And profits shot through the rough. I made $400 that month when in the previous month I only made about $190. Wow I though. People really like these mini comics. So I commission a second one “Moral Dilemma”. That one was a tremendous flop. The difference? No nudity in “Moral Dilemma”. It seems people on the internet liked pictures of naked women. Who knew?

Well after that I released the R-rated transformation comic. That was the most successful month the comic ever had. $1800 in paypal donations were received. It was enough to recoup my loses and start work on a second comic “Legacy” that will be going live soon.

However the popularity of that comic was both a blessing and a curse. You see one of my readers warned me that paypal had changed their rules and it was now illegal to use paypal to pay for adult digital material. If there was a physical item being transferred that was ok but if the product was purely digital PayPal would revoke your account.

Well that left me with a dilemma. The R-rated material was paying for the site but at the same time there was a very real risk that the R-rated material could shut me down. I send a inquire to PayPal about this issue but was never able to get a straight answer from them. I still find odd that you can buy the most perverted sex toys with PayPal but you can purchase nude pictures.

Rather than getting my PayPal account revoked I looked around for a different payment method. Google along with a number of other gateways has the same restrictions as PayPal. The only payment method I found that would allow the transfer of “adult digital matieral” was the company CCBill.

CCBill had some problems. First the processing fee they charged was very high, appr. 20% of all transfers. And the second problem is they only allowed a membership system for payment. You could not get an account with them unless you have a member’s area of your website. The gateway was really set up for adult websites not exactly what I was doing but lacking an in-between choice I set up an account with them.

So far the economics has worked out. Donations for the tame wallpapers bring in about $150 per month were the membership system even with the fees brings in about $650 per month. But still I don’t like having a member’s area but it is a necessity if I want to have R-rated material, which for the time being is a necessity in its own right.

When I asked for advice on how to improve the member’s area one piece of advice I got frequently was to have a members only comic, an on-going story that only the members could see. I will just not do that, it goes against my every belive in what a webcomic should be. I appreciate all the support the member give me in making this comic but that is what they are doing supporting the main comic. I try to give the members as many extras as possible but as full blown stories go I could not stand locking them away in a member’s area.

As suggested the members area could be more accurately named “The people helping to pay for the main comic” area, but where is the poetry in that. The member’s area is a way to keep Studio Boom on as the artist and ultimately get more comic created per month. You will never truly get your money’s worth in a member’s area. Membership can be thought of more along the PBS model. You get a totebag for your membership but the real value is the program continues to operate.

I mean it’s an awfully nice webcomic you got here. It would be a shame if something happened to it. I’m just saying in the webcomic industry, hiatuses happen all the time. One second a comic is going along minding its own business, and then BOOM 3 months of crappy filler art. It would be an awful shame if that were to happen to Exiern here. Perhaps you should buy a membership. You know for "protection".

On a side note did you ever notice how pbs and organizes crime use the same funding model.

In short we have a members area because PayPal won’t let me sell R-rated material and I need to sell R-rated material to pay the bills. Perhaps one day the comic will have a readership high enough to do without the need of a members area but for the time be.